You confused risk and volatility.

Total stocks index is volatile - it has high standard deviation among prices and also among returns. However, it is not risky when the appropriate time frame is followed. Pre-retirement and retirement span multiple decades, where total stocks index is suitable.

Age in bonds is a relatively conservative approach and one that many people consider to be outdated. Most target date funds from Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity have about 10-15% bonds until you reach about 20-25 years away from the target date, then they start down a glide path arriving at around 60-70% bonds by the time you reach the target date or a little after.

Then just fudge the date and pick one 10 yrs out. It's your risk tolerance

>Vanguard Target Funds have *way* less than your age in bonds

Cause "your age in bonds" is a way to simplify it for people doing it themselves.

Target funds will not increase their bond allocation so linearly. You're young, you don't want your funds tied up in bonds. Hell, many people recommend identifying the correct target date fund for your retirement, and then adding another 10 years to it to keep it from overallocating bonds too quickly.

> They sound comparable with target funds being a safer option

“Easier”

Nobody said anything about safer.

> I’m confused because the Vanguard Target Funds have way less than your age in bonds.

Age in bonds is also the “easier” explanation, it’s something that someone without any knowledge of modern portfolio theory can probably manage to do. That doesn’t mean it is actually what modern portfolio theory says to do… just close enough that you’ll manage ok. It was the general recommendation before target date funds allowed everyone to easily access actual modern portfolio theory allocations.

You can still do whatever you want, of course, but if you don’t want to follow MPT precisely then target date funds are not for you.

Age in bonds is an old-fashioned rule, though it may be coming back into fashion if these interest rates keep climbing and level off.

You may find these links helpful:

• "How to handle $"
• Investing

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Investing is an exercise in understanding one's own risk tolerance. If you feel like target date funds are too risky for your situation. You should not feel pressured to use it.

Safe can be defined from a few different perspectives.

• safe can mean low losses

• safe can mean low chance to get into investing the wrong things due to lack of will, skill, time.

Your age in bonds is from the before era in long long ago when interest rates were higher. Its 120-age in bonds now.